A driver with her 5-year-old son in the car led Whittier police on a chase – driving over a front lawn, hitting a parked car and then getting out and, while carring her child, running to a local motel early Monday morning before getting caught, authorities said.

She was arrested after a brief struggle with officers, said Officer John Scoggins, a spokesman for the Whitter Police Department.

Until the chase ended, Scoggins said, police didn’t realize there was a child in the car.

Insider her motel room, police also found a second child of hers, this one 8 years old.

Police said they believe both children are the suspect’s.

Both children were handed over the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

The incident started around 2 a.m. when an officer tried to pull over a motorist he suspected was driving under the influence.

She didn’t stop.

“She decided she has other plans,” Scoggins said.

The chase lasted 15 to 20 minutes and went along streets in Whittier and a nearby unincorporated area, he said.

During the pursuit, Scoggins said, the suspect drove across a front lawn then collided with an empty parked vehicle before pulling into the motel, in the 14200 block of Whittier Boulevard. She got out carrying the 5-year-old boy, Scoggins said, and ran to the motel.

When officers learned that the woman was staying at the motel, police checked the room and found the second child, who had been left unattended.

Jazmine Renea Pratcher, 26, of El Monte was arrested on suspicion of felony evading, child endangerment, hit-and-run and probation violation. Pratcher was being held without bail at the Whittier police jail.

Ruby Gonzales started working for the company in 1991. Since then she has written about cities, school districts, crimes, cold cases, courts, the San Gabriel River, local history, anime, insects, forensics and the early days of the Internet when people still referred to it as the "information superhighway." Her current beat includes breaking news, crimes and courts for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star News and Whittier Daily News. When not in crime reporter mode, she frequents the remaining bookstores in the San Gabriel Valley, haunts craft stores or gets dragged to eateries by a relative who is a foodie.

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